Thousands of people perished in these densely populated working class boroughs. The raids, codenamed Operation Gomorrah by the RAF , killed at least 42, civilians; the precise number is not known.

About one million civilians were evacuated in the aftermath of the raids. While some of the boroughs destroyed were rebuilt as residential districts after the war, others such as Hammerbrook were entirely developed into office, retail and limited residential or industrial districts.

Hamburg had the greatest concentration of Jews in Germany. These were all directed to Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe or to concentration camps.

Most deported persons perished in the Holocaust. By the end of the Jüdischer Religionsverband in Hamburg was dissolved as an independent legal entity and its remaining assets and staff were assumed by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland District Northwest.

On 10 June the Reichssicherheitshauptamt dissolved the Reichsvereinigung by a decree. Hamburg surrendered without a fight to British Forces on 3 May , [28] three days after Adolf Hitler 's death.

From to , the Beatles launched their career by playing in various music clubs like the Star Club in the city. On 16 February , a North Sea flood caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one-fifth of Hamburg and killing more than people.

Since German reunification in , and the accession of several Central European and Baltic states into the European Union in , the Port of Hamburg has restarted ambitions for regaining its position as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre.

On 31 December , there were 1,, people registered as living in Hamburg in an area of There were , women and , men in Hamburg.

For every 1, females, there were 1, males. In , there were 19, births in Hamburg of which In the city, the population was spread out with In , there were 1,, households, of which The average household size was 1.

Hamburg residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December is as follows [36]. Since large-scale standardization of the German language beginning in earnest in the 18th century, various Low German-colored dialects have developed contact-varieties of German on Low Saxon substrates.

Originally, there was a range of such Missingsch varieties, the best-known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more bourgeois Hanseatendeutsch Hanseatic German , although the term is used in appreciation.

However, the former importance of Low German is indicated by several songs, such as the famous sea shanty Hamborger Veermaster , written in the 19th century when Low German was used more frequently.

Many toponyms and street names reflect Low Saxon vocabulary, partially even in Low Saxon spelling, which is not standardised, and to some part in forms adapted to Standard German.

Less than half of the residents of Hamburg are members of a religion. In late , According to the publication "Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland" Muslim life in Germany estimated , Muslim migrants counting in nearly 50 countries of origin lived in Hamburg in There are several mosques , including the Ahmadiyya run Fazle Omar Mosque , which is the oldest in the city, [43] the Islamic Centre Hamburg , and a Jewish community.

The city of Hamburg is one of 16 German states , therefore the Mayor of Hamburg 's office corresponds more to the role of a minister-president than to the one of a city mayor.

As a German state government , it is responsible for public education, correctional institutions and public safety; as a municipality, it is additionally responsible for libraries, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply and welfare services.

Since , the seat of the government has been the Hamburg Rathaus Hamburg City Hall , with the office of the mayor, the meeting room for the Senate and the floor for the Hamburg Parliament.

Hamburg is made up of seven boroughs German: Bezirke and subdivided into quarters German: There are localities German: The urban organization is regulated by the Constitution of Hamburg and several laws.

The last large annexation was done through the Greater Hamburg Act of , when the cities Altona , Harburg and Wandsbek were merged into the state of Hamburg.

Each borough is governed by a Borough Council German: Bezirksversammlung and administered by a Municipal Administrator German: The boroughs are not independent municipalities: The borough administrator is elected by the Borough Council and thereafter requires confirmation and appointment by Hamburg's Senate.

Pauli , Steinwerder , Veddel , Waltershof and Wilhelmsburg. Altona is the westernmost urban borough, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From to , Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy.

Eimsbüttel is split into nine quarters: Harburg lies on the southern shores of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg, residential and rural areas, and some research institutes.

Hamburg has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles and no skyscrapers see List of tallest buildings in Hamburg. Churches are important landmarks, such as St Nicholas' , which for a short time in the 19th century was the world's tallest building.

Catherine's covered with copper plates, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm , the radio and television tower no longer publicly accessible.

The many streams, rivers and canals are crossed by some 2, bridges , more than London , Amsterdam and Venice put together. The town hall is a richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in Europe's largest urban development since , the HafenCity , will house about 10, inhabitants and 15, workers.

The plan includes designs by Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano. The many parks are distributed over the whole city, which makes Hamburg a very verdant city.

The Stadtpark , Hamburg's "Central Park", has a great lawn and a huge water tower, which houses one of Europe's biggest planetaria.

The park and its buildings were designed by Fritz Schumacher in the s. The lavish and spacious Planten un Blomen park Low German dialect for "plants and flowers" located in the centre of Hamburg is the green heart of the city.

Within the park are various thematic gardens, the biggest Japanese garden in Germany, and the Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg , which is a historic botanical garden that now consists primarily of greenhouses.

Besides these, there are many more parks of various sizes. In Hamburg celebrated a birthday of park culture, where many parks were reconstructed and cleaned up.

Moreover, every year there are the famous water-light-concerts in the Planten un Blomen park from May to early October. Hamburg has more than 40 theatres, 60 museums and music venues and clubs.

In , more than 18 million people visited concerts, exhibitions, theatres, cinemas, museums, and cultural events. More than 8, taxable companies average size 3.

There are five companies in the creative sector per thousand residents as compared to three in Berlin and 37 in London. The English Theatre of Hamburg [60] near U3 Mundsburg station was established in and is the oldest professional English-speaking theatre in Germany, and has exclusively English native-speaking actors in its company.

Visitors descending from those overseas emigrants may search for their ancestors at computer terminals.

Hamburg State Opera is a leading opera company. Its orchestra is the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The main concert venue is the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie.

Before it was the Laeiszhalle , Musikhalle Hamburg. The Laeiszhalle also houses a third orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker.

This density, the highest in Germany, is partly due to the major musical production company Stage Entertainment being based in the city.

Prior to the group's initial recording and widespread fame, Hamburg provided residency and performing venues for the Beatles from to Hamburg has nurtured a number of pop musicians.

Identical twins Bill Kaulitz and Tom Kaulitz from the rock band Tokio Hotel live and maintain a recording studio in Hamburg, where they recorded their second and third albums, Zimmer and Humanoid.

Singer Nena also lives in Hamburg. There is a substantial alternative and punk scene, which gathers around the Rote Flora , a squatted former theatre located in the Sternschanze.

Hamburg is famous for an original kind of German alternative music called Hamburger Schule "Hamburg School" , a term used for bands like Tocotronic , Blumfeld , Tomte or Kante.

The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the s. The influences of these and other bands from the area helped establish the subgenre of power metal.

Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone. Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events.

Some of them are street festivals, such as the gay pride Hamburg Pride festival [66] or the Alster fair German: Alstervergnügen , [67] held at the Binnenalster.

Lange Nacht der Museen offers one entrance fee for about 40 museums until midnight. Film Tage — presents a wide range of films. Since , Hamburg has the Dockville music and art festival.

It takes place every year in summer in Wilhelmsburg. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners. Alsterwasser in reference to the city's river, the Alster is the local name for a type of shandy , a concoction of equal parts of beer and carbonated lemonade Zitronenlimonade , the lemonade being added to the beer.

There is the curious regional dessert pastry called Franzbrötchen. Looking rather like a flattened croissant, it is similar in preparation but includes a cinnamon and sugar filling, often with raisins or brown sugar streusel.

The name may also reflect to the roll's croissant -like appearance — franz appears to be a shortening of französisch , meaning "French", which would make a Franzbrötchen a "French roll".

Ordinary bread rolls tend to be oval-shaped and of the French bread variety. The local name is Schrippe scored lengthways for the oval kind and, for the round kind, Rundstück "round piece" rather than mainstream German Brötchen , diminutive form of Brot "bread" , [84] a relative of Denmark's rundstykke.

In fact, while by no means identical, the cuisines of Hamburg and Denmark , especially of Copenhagen , have a lot in common.

This also includes a predilection for open-faced sandwiches of all sorts, especially topped with cold-smoked or pickled fish.

The American hamburger may have developed from Hamburg's Frikadeller: The Oxford Dictionary defined a Hamburger steak in There are restaurants which offer most of these dishes, especially in the HafenCity.

Pauli Piers and cruise ship. Hamburg Rathaus City Hall. Reeperbahn , nightlife district of St. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof , busiest railway station in Germany.

Hamburg has long been a centre of alternative music and counter culture movements. The boroughs of St. Pauli , Sternschanze and Altona are known for being home to many radical left-wing and anarchist groups, culminating every year during the traditional May Day demonstrations.

The Rote Flora is a former theatre, which was squatted in in the wake of re-development plans for that area. Since then, the Rote Flora has become one of the most well-known strongholds against gentrification and a place for radical culture throughout Germany and Europe.

Especially during the 33rd G8 summit in nearby Heiligendamm , the Rote Flora served as an important venue for organising the counter-protests that were taking place back then.

During the G20 summit , which took place in Hamburg from 7—8 July that year, protestors clashed violently with the police in the Sternschanze area and particularly around the Rote Flora.

On 7 July, several cars were set on fire and street barricades were erected to prevent the police from entering the area.

In response to that, the police made heavy use of water cannons and tear gas in order to scatter the protestors.

However, this was met with strong resistance by protestors, resulting in a total of injured police and 75 arrested participants in the protests. After the summit, however, the Rote Flora issued a statement, in which it condemns the arbitrary acts of violence that were committed by some of the protestors whilst generally defending the right to use violence as a means of self-defence against police oppression.

In particular, the spokesperson of the Rote Flora said that the autonomous cultural centre had a traditionally good relationship with its neighbours and local residents, since they were united in their fight against gentrification in that neighbourhood.

Furthermore, the Anglo-Hanseatic Lodge No. The American Chamber of Commerce handles matters related to business affairs.

A Hamburg saying, referring to its anglophile nature, is: A memorial for successful English engineer William Lindley , who reorganized, beginning in , the drinking water and sewage system and thus helped to fight against cholera, is near Baumwall train station in Vorsetzen street.

In , more than 2, "stumbling blocks" Stolpersteine were laid, engraved with the names of deported and murdered citizens.

Inserted into the pavement in front of their former houses, the blocks draw attention to the victims of Nazi persecution. The city has a relatively high employment rate, at 88 percent of the working-age population, employed in over , businesses.

Hamburg has for centuries been a commercial centre of Northern Europe, and is the most important banking city of Northern Germany. The city is the seat of Germany's oldest bank , the Berenberg Bank , M.

The Hamburg Stock Exchange is the oldest of its kind in Germany. The most significant economic unit is the Port of Hamburg , which ranks third to Rotterdam and Antwerpen in Europe and 17th-largest worldwide with transshipments of 8.

Hamburg, along with Seattle and Toulouse , is an important location of the civil aerospace industry. Hamburg is also home to Rotring , the famed maker of technical drawing instruments and pens, and DVA Group , a multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company.

The HafenCity is Europe's largest urban development project and is located in the Hamburg-Mitte district.

It consists of the area of the Great Grasbrook, the northern part of the former Elbe island Grasbrook , and the warehouse district on the former Elbe island Kehrwieder and Wandrahm.

It is bordered to the north, separated by the customs channel to Hamburg's city center, west and south by the Elbe and to the east, bounded by the upper harbor, Rothenburgsort.

The district is full of rivers and streams and is surrounded by channels, and has a total area of about 2. HafenCity has hectares in the area formerly belonging to the free port north of the Great Grasbrook.

Residential units for up to 12, people are planned to be built on the site by around the mids, and jobs for up to 40, people, mainly in the office sector, should be created.

It is the largest ongoing urban development project in Hamburg. According to the person responsible for the development and commercialization of HafenCity, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH , half of the master plan underlying structural construction is already completed, whereas the other half is either under construction or is in the construction preparation stages.

Many companies operating in E-Commerce have moved into HafenCity or started there. In addition to cruise agents such as the CaptainTravel GmbH many start-up companies that have no direct connection to the port or ships can be found in HafenCity.

Hamburg has one of the fastest-growing tourism industries in Germany. From to , the overnight stays in the city increased by A typical Hamburg visit includes a tour of the city hall and the grand church St.

Michaelis called the Michel , and visiting the old warehouse district Speicherstadt and the harbour promenade Landungsbrücken. Sightseeing buses connect these points of interest.

Major destinations also include museums. The area of Reeperbahn in the quarter St. Pauli is Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars and nightclubs.

The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St. The Beatles had stints on the Reeperbahn early in their careers. Hamburg's famous zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck , was founded in by Carl Hagenbeck as the first zoo with moated, barless enclosures.

In , the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg. Most foreigners are European, especially from Denmark , overnight stays , the United Kingdom , overnight stays , Switzerland , overnight stays , Austria about , overnight stays and the Netherlands about , overnight stays.

The Queen Mary 2 has docked regularly since , and there were six departures planned from onwards. Media businesses employ over 70, people.

There are regional radio stations such as Radio Hamburg. Many national newspapers and magazines such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are produced in Hamburg, as well as some special-interest newspapers such as Financial Times Deutschland.

Hamburger Abendblatt and Hamburger Morgenpost are daily regional newspapers with a large circulation. There are music publishers, such as Warner Bros.

The Reeperbahn has been the location for many scenes, including the Beatles film Backbeat. Hamburg was also shown in An American Tail where Fievel Mousekewitz and his family immigrate to America in the hopes to escape cats.

Hamburg has 54 hospitals. The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf , with about 1, beds, houses a large medical school.

There are also smaller private hospitals. On 1 January there were about 12, hospital beds. Hamburg is a major transportation hub, connected to four Autobahnen motorways and the most important railway junction on the route to Scandinavia.

Bridges and tunnels connect the northern and southern parts of the city, such as the old Elbe Tunnel Alter Elbtunnel or St. Pauli Elbtunnel official name which opened in , now is major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel Elbtunnel the crossing of a motorway.

Hamburg Airport is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation. Some airlines market Lübeck Airport in Lübeck as serving Hamburg. Hanseatic City of Hamburg between and and from onwards, rather than the single letter normally used for large cities since the federal registration reform in , such as B for Berlin or M for Munich.

Tickets sold by one company are valid on all other HVV companies' services. The HVV was the first organisation of this kind worldwide. Older residents still speak of the system as Hochbahn elevated railway , also because the operating company of the subway is the Hamburger Hochbahn.

Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hauptbahnhof , Dammtor , Altona and Harburg regional trains do not stop inside the city.

The tram system was opened in and shut down in Gaps in the rail network are filled by more than bus routes, operated by single-deck two-, three- and four-axle diesel buses.

The buses run frequently during working hours, with buses on some so-called MetroBus routes as often as every 2 minutes.

MetroBuses run all around the clock, every day at the year at least every half-hour. While mainly used by citizens and dock workers, they can also be used for sightseeing tours.

EDDH is the fifth biggest and oldest airport in Germany, having been established in and located about 5 miles 8 kilometres from the city centre.

About 60 airlines provide service to destination airports, including some long distance destinations like Newark, New Jersey on United Airlines , Dubai on Emirates , and Tehran on Iran Air ; Lufthansa is the hub carrier, with the most flights and operates one of its biggest maintenance facilities at the Hamburg airport Lufthansa Technik.

It is the second biggest Airbus plant, after Toulouse , and the third biggest aviation manufacturing plant after Seattle and Toulouse; the plant houses the final assembly lines for A, A, A, A and A aircraft.

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Hamburg, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 58 min.

The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 8. Vattenfall Europe used to operate the Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant and Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant , both taken out of service as part of the nuclear power phase-out.

Hamburg is sometimes called Germany's capital of sport since no other city has more first-league teams and international sports events.

Hamburger SV is a football team playing in the 2. Bundesliga as of The HSV was the oldest team of the Bundesliga, playing in the league since its beginning in until a change of results saw them relegated from the Bundesliga in HSV is a six-time German champion, a three-time German cup winner and triumphed in the European Cup in , and has played in the group stages of the Champions League twice: They play at the Volksparkstadion average attendance in the 12—13 season was 52, In addition, FC St.

Pauli was a second division football club that came in second place in the —10 season and qualified to play alongside Hamburger SV in the first division for the first time since the —02 season.

Pauli's home games take place at the Millerntor-Stadion. The Club won the league in the —11 season and had an average attendance of Since , the club has suffered from economic problems and was almost not allowed the playing licence for the —15 season.

On 20 January however, their licence was removed due to violations following the continued economic struggles.

Following that RB Leipzig gained promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in , supporter groups from ten clubs in the 2. In March , the campaign web page indicated a number of supporter groups from 29 clubs.

At away matches, the club has regularly been greeted with protests in various forms. During the away match against 1.

FC Union Berlin on 21 September , the home supporters symbolically wore black plastic ponchos and were silent for the first 15 minutes of the match.

A large banner displayed by home supporters said: Another banner displayed said: FC Heidenheim on 18 September , the player bus was approached upon the arrival at the stadium by supporters of 1.

During the home match against FC Hansa Rostock on 23 November , the away supporters protested by being entirely absent for the first seven minutes of the match and then filled the guest block in large numbers.

FC Union Berlin on 19 February At some occasions, the protests have turned into violence and threats. The player bus was attacked with bottles, and the police had to use pepper spray to succeed.

The team was insulted, spat at and pelted with beer cups during the warm-up, and had to leave the stadium with police escort after the match.

Riots also appeared after the match when home supporters tried to break through a security perimeter to approach away supporters. Firecrackers and other objects were thrown at the police, and four police officers were slightly injured in the turmoil.

The night before the match, the lobby of the player hotel in Karlsruhe was stormed by local hooligans. Several football clubs, such as VfB Stuttgart , 1.

Some critics can however also be found among the supporters of RB Leipzig. The supporter group Rasenballisten describes itself as uniting critical supporters.

The group members have stated that the identity of a club cannot solely rely on its main sponsor and the group has criticized Red Bull GmbH for dominating the external representation of the club.

Instead, the group wants to emphasize the name RasenBallsport and the Leipzig identity. Sporting director Ralf Rangnick has pointed at the fact that sponsors and investors are present also at other clubs.

He admitted that there was a difference: FC Bayern Munich first had sporting success, and then sponsors and investors. However, he insisted that the situation at VfL Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen was exactly the same, and that VfL Wolfsburg became German champions in to a very large extent due to the financial support from Volkswagen AG.

He explained that when the company is committed in sports, it is involved in the sports operations itself. It has been suggested that the restrictive membership policy was implemented in order to prevent the club from being taken over by hostile supporters.

He also said that the conditions that had prevailed at some other clubs had certainly not been positive for their development.

The club entered a cooperation agreement with the supporter organization Fanprojekt Leipzig in , and the club also has a dialogue with the fan representatives of the supporter union Fanverband RB Leipzig Fans.

Both Dietrich Mateschitz and sporting director Ralf Rangnick have made comments on transfer policy. Dietrich Mateschitz commented on the football commitment of Red Bulll GmbH in and said that the company was "no good stars buyers".

What we do, we try to do with our brain. Nothing is easier than to take a bag full of money and go shopping. That is stupid, stupid we are not". And that with as many own players as possible".

Bundesliga who had not signed any players from another club in the league. Several people have responded to the rejection of RB Leipzig as a "plastic club", which lacks traditions.

Sporting director Joachim Krug said in that RB Leipzig was simply a newly founded club with high ambitions.

By this, he meant that also RB Leipzig will one day become a traditional club. Sporting director Ralf Ragnick declared in that there were actually advantages to working in a new club without deep-rooted traditions.

He explained that structural changes and staffing decisions could be implemented quickly and flexibly at RB Leipzig, since there are no established hierarchies and less resistance in the environment.

He further said that he had seen enough examples of traditional clubs which have not made it anywhere. He said that to him, what mattered was if there existed a working philosophy and sustainability.

RB Leipzig has also received positive criticism and praise. He explained that young players will stay in the area and that the overall level of football in Lepzig will rise.

Mayor Burkhard Jung praised Dietrich Mateschitz as "honest, ambitious and serious". The prize ceremony was for the first time attended by the Minister-president of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich.

He said that he hoped for high class football, and that it would have earned the whole region and East Germany.

Bundesliga was a great development for East Germany and that the attendance boom in Leipzig showed just how much the club had been awaited. He said that decisive would be what the club could offer its fans, and that if the model works, it would be beneficial for all football, not only for football in East Germany.

Bundesliga in and said that it was the best thing that could happen to football in Leipzig. He also rejected the complaints of "traditionalists", as 1.

In interviews published in German newspaper Bild in , representatives of several Leipzig football clubs explained how their clubs had benefited from the establishment of RB Leipzig.

Former FC Sachsen Leipzig liquidator Heiko Kratz explained that by , the club was no longer able to finance its youth academy, but by selling its A to D junior teams to RB Leipzig, at least they could give the players a future.

Holger Nussbaum from SSV Markranstädt, explained how the financial compensation from RB Leipzig meant that the club now had players that it otherwise would not have, and that it now aimed at reaching the Regionalliga.

Ralph Zahn from ESV Delitzsch said that the financial compensation from RB Leipzig had made it possible for the club to build an artificial turf pitch with floodlights for the cost of , euros.

RB Leipzig also had an increase in five out of six image values. Sympathetic had increased 2. A study carried out by the company Repucom in showed that RB Leipzig had a nationwide increase of 60 percent in press, radio and television.

It also showed that the reports had become more objective and complex. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The neutrality of this article is disputed.

Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met.

September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Red Bull Arena Leipzig. This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably.

Eimsbüttel is split into nine quarters: Harburg lies on the southern shores of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg, residential and rural areas, and some research institutes.

Hamburg has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles and no skyscrapers see List of tallest buildings in Hamburg.

Churches are important landmarks, such as St Nicholas' , which for a short time in the 19th century was the world's tallest building.

Catherine's covered with copper plates, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm , the radio and television tower no longer publicly accessible.

The many streams, rivers and canals are crossed by some 2, bridges , more than London , Amsterdam and Venice put together. The town hall is a richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in Europe's largest urban development since , the HafenCity , will house about 10, inhabitants and 15, workers.

The plan includes designs by Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano. The many parks are distributed over the whole city, which makes Hamburg a very verdant city.

The Stadtpark , Hamburg's "Central Park", has a great lawn and a huge water tower, which houses one of Europe's biggest planetaria.

The park and its buildings were designed by Fritz Schumacher in the s. The lavish and spacious Planten un Blomen park Low German dialect for "plants and flowers" located in the centre of Hamburg is the green heart of the city.

Within the park are various thematic gardens, the biggest Japanese garden in Germany, and the Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg , which is a historic botanical garden that now consists primarily of greenhouses.

Besides these, there are many more parks of various sizes. In Hamburg celebrated a birthday of park culture, where many parks were reconstructed and cleaned up.

Moreover, every year there are the famous water-light-concerts in the Planten un Blomen park from May to early October. Hamburg has more than 40 theatres, 60 museums and music venues and clubs.

In , more than 18 million people visited concerts, exhibitions, theatres, cinemas, museums, and cultural events.

More than 8, taxable companies average size 3. There are five companies in the creative sector per thousand residents as compared to three in Berlin and 37 in London.

The English Theatre of Hamburg [60] near U3 Mundsburg station was established in and is the oldest professional English-speaking theatre in Germany, and has exclusively English native-speaking actors in its company.

Visitors descending from those overseas emigrants may search for their ancestors at computer terminals. Hamburg State Opera is a leading opera company.

Its orchestra is the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The main concert venue is the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie. Before it was the Laeiszhalle , Musikhalle Hamburg.

The Laeiszhalle also houses a third orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker. This density, the highest in Germany, is partly due to the major musical production company Stage Entertainment being based in the city.

Prior to the group's initial recording and widespread fame, Hamburg provided residency and performing venues for the Beatles from to Hamburg has nurtured a number of pop musicians.

Identical twins Bill Kaulitz and Tom Kaulitz from the rock band Tokio Hotel live and maintain a recording studio in Hamburg, where they recorded their second and third albums, Zimmer and Humanoid.

Singer Nena also lives in Hamburg. There is a substantial alternative and punk scene, which gathers around the Rote Flora , a squatted former theatre located in the Sternschanze.

Hamburg is famous for an original kind of German alternative music called Hamburger Schule "Hamburg School" , a term used for bands like Tocotronic , Blumfeld , Tomte or Kante.

The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the s. The influences of these and other bands from the area helped establish the subgenre of power metal.

Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone. Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events.

Some of them are street festivals, such as the gay pride Hamburg Pride festival [66] or the Alster fair German: Alstervergnügen , [67] held at the Binnenalster.

Lange Nacht der Museen offers one entrance fee for about 40 museums until midnight. Film Tage — presents a wide range of films.

Since , Hamburg has the Dockville music and art festival. It takes place every year in summer in Wilhelmsburg. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners.

Alsterwasser in reference to the city's river, the Alster is the local name for a type of shandy , a concoction of equal parts of beer and carbonated lemonade Zitronenlimonade , the lemonade being added to the beer.

There is the curious regional dessert pastry called Franzbrötchen. Looking rather like a flattened croissant, it is similar in preparation but includes a cinnamon and sugar filling, often with raisins or brown sugar streusel.

The name may also reflect to the roll's croissant -like appearance — franz appears to be a shortening of französisch , meaning "French", which would make a Franzbrötchen a "French roll".

Ordinary bread rolls tend to be oval-shaped and of the French bread variety. The local name is Schrippe scored lengthways for the oval kind and, for the round kind, Rundstück "round piece" rather than mainstream German Brötchen , diminutive form of Brot "bread" , [84] a relative of Denmark's rundstykke.

In fact, while by no means identical, the cuisines of Hamburg and Denmark , especially of Copenhagen , have a lot in common.

This also includes a predilection for open-faced sandwiches of all sorts, especially topped with cold-smoked or pickled fish.

The American hamburger may have developed from Hamburg's Frikadeller: The Oxford Dictionary defined a Hamburger steak in There are restaurants which offer most of these dishes, especially in the HafenCity.

Pauli Piers and cruise ship. Hamburg Rathaus City Hall. Reeperbahn , nightlife district of St. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof , busiest railway station in Germany.

Hamburg has long been a centre of alternative music and counter culture movements. The boroughs of St. Pauli , Sternschanze and Altona are known for being home to many radical left-wing and anarchist groups, culminating every year during the traditional May Day demonstrations.

The Rote Flora is a former theatre, which was squatted in in the wake of re-development plans for that area. Since then, the Rote Flora has become one of the most well-known strongholds against gentrification and a place for radical culture throughout Germany and Europe.

Especially during the 33rd G8 summit in nearby Heiligendamm , the Rote Flora served as an important venue for organising the counter-protests that were taking place back then.

During the G20 summit , which took place in Hamburg from 7—8 July that year, protestors clashed violently with the police in the Sternschanze area and particularly around the Rote Flora.

On 7 July, several cars were set on fire and street barricades were erected to prevent the police from entering the area.

In response to that, the police made heavy use of water cannons and tear gas in order to scatter the protestors. However, this was met with strong resistance by protestors, resulting in a total of injured police and 75 arrested participants in the protests.

After the summit, however, the Rote Flora issued a statement, in which it condemns the arbitrary acts of violence that were committed by some of the protestors whilst generally defending the right to use violence as a means of self-defence against police oppression.

In particular, the spokesperson of the Rote Flora said that the autonomous cultural centre had a traditionally good relationship with its neighbours and local residents, since they were united in their fight against gentrification in that neighbourhood.

Furthermore, the Anglo-Hanseatic Lodge No. The American Chamber of Commerce handles matters related to business affairs.

A Hamburg saying, referring to its anglophile nature, is: A memorial for successful English engineer William Lindley , who reorganized, beginning in , the drinking water and sewage system and thus helped to fight against cholera, is near Baumwall train station in Vorsetzen street.

In , more than 2, "stumbling blocks" Stolpersteine were laid, engraved with the names of deported and murdered citizens. Inserted into the pavement in front of their former houses, the blocks draw attention to the victims of Nazi persecution.

The city has a relatively high employment rate, at 88 percent of the working-age population, employed in over , businesses.

Hamburg has for centuries been a commercial centre of Northern Europe, and is the most important banking city of Northern Germany.

The city is the seat of Germany's oldest bank , the Berenberg Bank , M. The Hamburg Stock Exchange is the oldest of its kind in Germany.

The most significant economic unit is the Port of Hamburg , which ranks third to Rotterdam and Antwerpen in Europe and 17th-largest worldwide with transshipments of 8.

Hamburg, along with Seattle and Toulouse , is an important location of the civil aerospace industry. Hamburg is also home to Rotring , the famed maker of technical drawing instruments and pens, and DVA Group , a multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company.

The HafenCity is Europe's largest urban development project and is located in the Hamburg-Mitte district. It consists of the area of the Great Grasbrook, the northern part of the former Elbe island Grasbrook , and the warehouse district on the former Elbe island Kehrwieder and Wandrahm.

It is bordered to the north, separated by the customs channel to Hamburg's city center, west and south by the Elbe and to the east, bounded by the upper harbor, Rothenburgsort.

The district is full of rivers and streams and is surrounded by channels, and has a total area of about 2. HafenCity has hectares in the area formerly belonging to the free port north of the Great Grasbrook.

Residential units for up to 12, people are planned to be built on the site by around the mids, and jobs for up to 40, people, mainly in the office sector, should be created.

It is the largest ongoing urban development project in Hamburg. According to the person responsible for the development and commercialization of HafenCity, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH , half of the master plan underlying structural construction is already completed, whereas the other half is either under construction or is in the construction preparation stages.

Many companies operating in E-Commerce have moved into HafenCity or started there. In addition to cruise agents such as the CaptainTravel GmbH many start-up companies that have no direct connection to the port or ships can be found in HafenCity.

Hamburg has one of the fastest-growing tourism industries in Germany. From to , the overnight stays in the city increased by A typical Hamburg visit includes a tour of the city hall and the grand church St.

Michaelis called the Michel , and visiting the old warehouse district Speicherstadt and the harbour promenade Landungsbrücken.

Sightseeing buses connect these points of interest. Major destinations also include museums. The area of Reeperbahn in the quarter St.

Pauli is Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars and nightclubs. The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St.

The Beatles had stints on the Reeperbahn early in their careers. Hamburg's famous zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck , was founded in by Carl Hagenbeck as the first zoo with moated, barless enclosures.

In , the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg. Most foreigners are European, especially from Denmark , overnight stays , the United Kingdom , overnight stays , Switzerland , overnight stays , Austria about , overnight stays and the Netherlands about , overnight stays.

The Queen Mary 2 has docked regularly since , and there were six departures planned from onwards. Media businesses employ over 70, people.

There are regional radio stations such as Radio Hamburg. Many national newspapers and magazines such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are produced in Hamburg, as well as some special-interest newspapers such as Financial Times Deutschland.

Hamburger Abendblatt and Hamburger Morgenpost are daily regional newspapers with a large circulation. There are music publishers, such as Warner Bros.

The Reeperbahn has been the location for many scenes, including the Beatles film Backbeat. Hamburg was also shown in An American Tail where Fievel Mousekewitz and his family immigrate to America in the hopes to escape cats.

Hamburg has 54 hospitals. The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf , with about 1, beds, houses a large medical school. There are also smaller private hospitals.

On 1 January there were about 12, hospital beds. Hamburg is a major transportation hub, connected to four Autobahnen motorways and the most important railway junction on the route to Scandinavia.

Bridges and tunnels connect the northern and southern parts of the city, such as the old Elbe Tunnel Alter Elbtunnel or St. Pauli Elbtunnel official name which opened in , now is major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel Elbtunnel the crossing of a motorway.

Hamburg Airport is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation. Some airlines market Lübeck Airport in Lübeck as serving Hamburg.

Hanseatic City of Hamburg between and and from onwards, rather than the single letter normally used for large cities since the federal registration reform in , such as B for Berlin or M for Munich.

Tickets sold by one company are valid on all other HVV companies' services. The HVV was the first organisation of this kind worldwide. Older residents still speak of the system as Hochbahn elevated railway , also because the operating company of the subway is the Hamburger Hochbahn.

Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hauptbahnhof , Dammtor , Altona and Harburg regional trains do not stop inside the city.